


The Captain and the Wind-Up Man

by luckyraeve, monicawoe



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Airships, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, M/M, Mecha, Rhyming, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, poem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 23:56:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11024256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luckyraeve/pseuds/luckyraeve, https://archiveofourown.org/users/monicawoe/pseuds/monicawoe
Summary: A Steampunk Stucky poem written for theNot Without You Anthologyart byluckyraeve!





	The Captain and the Wind-Up Man

**Author's Note:**

> Extra special thanks to [luckyraeve](http://luckyraeve.tumblr.com/) for the gorgeous art and for encouraging me to participate in the anthology <3

 

There were two boys from Brooklyn, named Bucky and Steve,  
Grew up closer than brothers ’til one had to leave.  
Bucky went to war, and Steve tried to follow;  
His lungs were too weak, his bones were too hollow.  
But Steve never gave up; he faked his name and faked his past,  
Then Doctor Abraham Erskine gave him a chance at last.  
The Doc said, "One chance is all you get, so take heed."  
Steve squared his bony shoulders and said, "That's all I need."  
They took him to a secret lab in a submarine,  
Peggy Carter, Howard Stark, and Doctor Erskine.  
They strapped him down, shot super serum in his veins,  
Vita-radiation made him grow and writhe with pain.  
When they opened up the pod, Steve was six feet tall,  
As strong and muscle-bound as he'd been weak and small.  
But a Hydra spy was there, watched it all with a frown,  
He set the lab to blow and shot the good Doc down.  
Steve Rogers caught the spy, but he soon began to choke,  
Took his own life with cyanide and died before he spoke.

#

Steve had learned to make the best when life gave him the worst.  
The Army was angry—Steve was meant to be the first,  
Only one of many super soldiers, stronger than before.  
"I may be just one man, but I want to fight this war,"  
Steve said, "I'm ready, you've all seen what I can do."  
"I asked for an army, and all I got was you.  
You're not enough, son," General Phillips said.  
And so, defeated, Steve Rogers hung his head.

#

Despite all his will, despite his newfound brawn,  
Steve Rogers's gifts were squandered, and the war raged on.  
Word came that Bucky's unit, the 107th, had been caught.  
They'd been captured by Hydra, or so the general thought.  
"Your friend's surely dead; it's been far too long."  
But Steve never did listen, not when others were wrong.  
"I swear I'll find you, Bucky, wherever you may be."  
Peggy Carter heard Steve's promise and said, "Come with me."

#

In Stark's airship they sailed, cross the sea, to the war,  
Through Hydra's horde of horrors they'd never seen before.  
A legion of monsters, made not of flesh but steel,  
Mecha-bats and cannon-fire made their vessel keel.  
But they pushed on and brought Steve to the Red Skull's base;  
The madman had a soul, they said, as twisted as his face.  
The troops held there were chained and weak, and as Steve set them free,  
They asked him who he thought he was, and he said, "Nobody."  
"You're nobody, you said yourself—why should we lend an ear?"  
"Because I've got a plan," Steve said, "to get us out of here.  
But first you have to tell me where's my Bucky, where is James?"  
"Deeper in, there's a med-wing, where Doctor Zola maims."  
Steve found Bucky breathing, riddled through with tubes and wire.  
They went to join the others; Red Skull set the place afire.  
The walls around them crumbled, and the Red Skull said with glee,  
"We're leaving now, you're dying here, and I have won, you see?"  
Something massive rose behind them—of iron, steel, and chain,  
A winged metal serpent, a flying silver train.

#

Steve and James gave chase, as the train began to rise,  
They leapt across the fire with fury in their eyes.  
They clung on as the serpent climbed, crawled inside its hull.  
James pursued Herr Zola and Steve chased down Red Skull.  
"The Valkyrie is quite a feat." Skull gave Steve a grin.  
"You think that you can stop me? There's no way you can win."  
Steve raised his shield and countered every strike, every blow.  
"I thought you an equal, but it clearly isn't so,"  
Red Skull boasted, as he drove Steve up against the wall.  
Steve dodged, and hit a lever, and the train began to fall.  
Bucky cornered Zola, wrapped his hands around his throat.  
"You've lost," the doctor said, and it sounded like a gloat.  
"The Valkyrie's a bomber, and since you've forced our hand,  
We'll let her payload fly and decimate the land."  
"You won't, for we won't let you." Bucky balled his hands to fists.  
But Zola kept smiling, and metal clamped on Bucky's wrists.  
A mecha-man had grabbed him, with hands of iron and lead.  
"Say your prayers, if you have them, for soon we'll both be dead."  
Bucky struggled in his binds, but lightning pierced his brain.  
Paralyzed from inside out, he shook with rage and pain.  
"You're too late," Zola said. "Our target city nears."  
Bucky slipped his captor's grip and lunged for the bay door gears.  
He grabbed hold of the missile, looking for the override.  
Zola tried to stop him as the bay doors opened wide.  
The missile dropped above the sea, with miles still left to go.  
Bucky thought of Steve and fell into the ocean down below.  
The Captain and Schmidt, locked in battle, eye to eye,  
Still fighting as the Valkyrie plummeted from the sky.  
The world lit up with sound and fire; Steve's eyes teared from the smoke.  
The descent's speed crushed his lungs, and he began to choke.  
But there, miles below him, Steve saw Bucky hit the sea,  
and his last thought was 'Bucky, oh, my Bucky, wait for me.'

#

Steve woke to Peggy gazing down, her hair a soft halo.  
She smiled and whispered, "There you are, oh Steve, we worried so."  
She'd grown older—in her hair were streaks of white and grey.  
"About damn time," said Howard Stark. "It's thirty years today.  
Thirty years since the Valkyrie crashed down into the sea."  
"Thirty years?" Steve asked in shock. "But how—how can that be?"  
"We found you in an ice block after searching all these years."  
Steve's heart began to thunder; he blinked back frightened tears.  
"Bucky?" Steve asked, remembering the Valkyrie's great fall.  
"Sorry, there's no trace of him, though we looked for you all."  
"No, that can't be," Steve said, as sorrow filled his heart.  
He prayed he was still dreaming as his world crumbled apart.  
"There's no sign of Barnes or Zola—we've searched everywhere.  
But we found Schmidt, in pieces. Kept them frozen over there."  
Howard Stark pointed behind him, and right there in a cell  
Was the Red Skull's twisted corpse in a foot-deep icy shell.  
Steve stood, and though all his limbs were still stiffened with ache,  
Incandescent rage flowed through him, his hands began to shake  
And so Steve left and lived, his world no longer whole.  
He fought all the right battles, but he fought without his soul.  
With Bucky gone, Steve felt empty, spirit torn asunder,  
It had drowned with Bucky when the Valkyrie went under.  
The Captain's heart was broken, not how it was before.  
He fought like he'd been made to—a weapon, nothing more.

#

And then, one day, a rumor wormed its way across the land.  
Front page of the paper, clutched in Steve's trembling hand:  
The Red Skull Lives! New Sightings! Terror Wracks Our Town!  
Steve was furious enough to tear the whole world down.  
So he went to the town named Styx and found it still and bare.  
Doors torn open, drinks half-finished—death was in the air.  
And then a sound—a swinging door, hard boot-steps over wood.  
Steve moved silent as a ghost, like no other man could.  
And in the tavern, by the bar, there stood the fiend himself.  
Steve held his shield at ready as the Skull reached for the shelf.  
Steve threw his shield with all his might to slice Schmidt open wide—  
The shield hit with a noisy clang and stuck there in his side.  
No sign of pain, Skull turned to Steve, shield lodged in his back.  
There was no blood—he had no flesh, just metal, painted black.  
His eyes were buzzing bulbs that flickered blue to red.  
Steve snarled, "You monstrous thing, that should have left you dead!"  
"More monstrous than you or I?" a voice asked from behind.  
Steve knew the voice—before he turned, he knew just who he'd find.  
Zola had survived, though not much of him remained.  
Steel tentacles writhed beneath a dome that contained  
A human brain—his grating voice—and something like his face.  
The features were no doubt his, though all were out of place.  
His mouth stretched wide, a gash of light, his eyes like sparks of Hell.  
"I knew you'd come, how could you not? My bait, it worked so well.  
But I have something better still—your dearest wish come true."  
In the shadows, something moved—glints of steel, eyes of blue.

#

Steve had barely time to think, nor time to turn around,  
When someone large and powerful knocked him to the ground.  
A masked soldier, whose grip was heavy metal and so cold,  
Steve's might was nearly not enough to free him from that hold.  
But Steve threw his attacker off, smashed him against the wall,  
The soldier climbed back to his feet; he'd not been harmed at all,  
And as he stood, his mask fell off; Steve couldn't catch his breath  
It was Bucky! Steve's dear Bucky, who had fallen to his death.  
His left arm was now metal—pistons ’stead of bone and flesh—  
Gears across his chest, spanned by straps of leather mesh,  
A metal band around his throat, eyes hollow, without soul.  
Yet no doubt, it was Bucky, who’d once made Steve's heart whole.  
Zola said, "Yes, it's him, and he's alive—your greatest wish come true.  
But oh, how sad, how tragic—it seems he's forgotten you."  
And Bucky's eyes stayed empty: a weapon, nothing more,  
Soulless tin, a wind-up man, not who he'd been before.  
Steve stood gaping, lost for words, heart thundering in his breast.  
Without warning, Bucky moved and slammed his fist into Steve's chest.  
Steve was strong, but Bucky's blows were amplified ten-fold.  
Another hook, another punch, and Steve was knocked out cold.

#

Steve next woke with his head aching, his body bruised and sore.  
And he was somewhere new, a place he'd never been before.  
The roof above his head was brightly lit and clean.  
Two pairs of eyes looked down at him, hazel-brown and green.  
"Where am I?" he asked. "You're in a town called Sin.  
We found you half dead, and brought you to my inn."  
The woman's smile was cool but true, her hair the shade of fire.  
"I'm Natasha and this is Sam, who pulled you from the mire."  
Sam held out his hand and smiled. "You looked in need of aid."  
"I'm fine." Steve rubbed his ribs. "But I'm a fool, and I was played.  
It wasn't Red Skull, it was Zola. He lured me with his lies.  
Too awful to be true, though I saw it with my own eyes."  
"What did you see?" Sam asked. "A ghost, my heart, my soul."  
Steve sighed. "I found my best friend, but he's no longer whole."  
"A ghost?" Natasha asked, "Did he come back from the dead?"  
"Someone brought him back, but changed—messed with his mind, his head."  
"That madman Zola," Sam said. "The wretched Hydra-beast.  
He and his wind-up soldiers hide in the mountains east."  
"Then that’s where I'm headed." Steve winced and tried to stand.  
Widow Black held him down with slight pressure from her hand.  
"You can't do this alone, Steve. There's no way you'll survive."  
"Thank you, but I have to, and I cannot risk your lives."  
"His lair hangs in the sky," Sam said, "the Dreadnought Zeppelin.  
How do you plan on getting there? You need us to get in."  
"An airship then," Steve said, "I know a guy with one."  
"No need," Sam said, "we'll come with you. I'll show you how it's done.  
But if you're after Zola, we'll need more than just us three."  
"I know a guy," said Widow Black. "He'll help us, believe me."

#

That night the inn was busy, loud men from near and far.  
They sat and ate and drank—at the tables, at the bar.  
The piano player, Banner, wore a monocle and chain.  
His suit was patched, his pants were frayed, his face was rather plain.  
He played a somber tune, a heartfelt song of woe.  
The patrons didn't like it much, and they all told him so.  
Jeering, booing, flinging things, and two drunks, large and tough,  
Stood and loomed over him. And Steve had had enough.  
"Sam, we have to help," he said, and headed down the stairs.  
"No, we don't," Sam said. "Trust me, stay out of his affairs.  
They're about to learn a lesson, our musician's willing bait.  
Our friend down there, he's goading them. You'll soon see—just wait."  
Banner played on, ignoring them, until one shoved him hard.  
He toppled off the piano bench and said, "Don't hit a bard.  
You may not love my music, and my songs are sad and strange,  
But you won't like me when I'm angry." And then he began to change.  
He grew ’til he was eight feet tall, a mass of muscled bulk.  
Green and raging mad, he roared, "Now play with Mister Hulk!"  
The fight was o'er in seconds, the patrons fled in fear.  
Banner slid two coins to Widow; she passed him a fresh beer.  
She said, "You didn't break a table—not even a chair."  
"I didn't," Banner said, "But that table's worse for wear."  
"Fill him in," Sam said, and gave Steve's arm a pat.  
Steve Rogers squared his shoulders and then he did just that.

#

Doc Banner said, "Your friend's not dead, but also not alive.  
They changed him, gave him metal parts, rebuilt him to survive.  
Zola overrode his mind, froze his heart, stole his voice.  
Now he's just a wind-up man, a soldier without choice."  
"You seem to know a lot about this Zola and his ways."  
"He captured me a few years back, and held me for ten days.  
In that short time he used me to crunch two cities flat.  
Ask me what it's like to try to live with that."  
But Steve didn't ask him; he just looked him in the eyes  
And said, "We save Bucky, then that monster Zola dies."

#

And so they headed eastwards, towards Arnim Zola's lair,  
Steve and Sam, the Widow Black, and the piano player.  
The sun was high in the sky when they found the Zeppelin fleet.  
"We go at night," said Widow. "Fortune favors the discreet."  
"No," Steve said, "we can't delay. We can and we must dare.  
Every hour Bucky suffers is one that we can't spare."  
Doc Banner shrugged his jacket off, turning green and growing.  
"Fine," growled Mister Hulk, "do you all know where you're going?"  
"The engine room," Sam said and pushed a button on his vest.  
Two wings unfurled, and he told Hulk, "You take the mecha-nest."

#

Up they went. Sam carried Steve, and flew into the sky.  
Widow Black hung onto Hulk, who leapt and passed them by.  
Sam wove quickly through Zola's fleet into the Dreadnought's bay.  
"Zola's here," Sam said. "Steve, I swear, we'll save your friend today."  
On the far side of the zeppelin, they heard Hulk roaring.  
"Find Bucky, I'll go help them," Sam said, and took off soaring.  
Steve found Bucky, guarding the Dreadnought Zeppelin's core,  
Expression just as empty as it had been before.  
Steve looked in his old friend's eyes, prayed to a God long gone.  
"Buck, remember who you are. Fight this! You're no one's pawn!"  
But the gears in Bucky's chest turned; he raised his metal arm.  
Steve brought his shield up just in time to keep himself from harm.  
Metal pounded against metal, and Steve was driven back.  
"I'm your friend, Buck," Steve pleaded. "There's no reason to attack."  
Steve grabbed hold of Bucky's collar and snapped it right in two.  
"I'm not your friend," Bucky snarled, "and I don't know you."  
He threw another punch then and struck Steve in the jaw.  
Bucky's fist slammed down again. Steve's wound was opened raw.  
"Life without you's not worth living," Steve said through bloodied spit.  
"It's lonely, cold and empty, and I want no part of it."  
Steve sunk down to his knees, dropped his shield, and bowed his head.  
"If you truly don't remember me, then you can strike me dead."  
But Bucky's eyes stayed empty: a weapon, nothing more.  
Soulless tin, a wind-up man, not who he'd been before.  
"I won't fight you," Steve said. "You're my heart, my love, my friend.  
No matter what, I promise, I'll stay with you ’til the end."  
Steve waited for the fatal blow, that final flash of steel.  
But the Dreadnought lurched wildly, the gondola began to reel.  
Speakers blared around them, "Now look at what you've done!  
"You cannot defeat Zola! I've only just begun!"

#

The ballonets were burning, and through the smoking haze,  
Crashed Widow, Sam and Hulk, his eyes a fiery blaze.  
He was holding something small—a glass globe filled with blue.  
He held it out to Bucky, and he growled, "This is for you."  
Inside the globe was liquid, within which sloshed a brain.  
"Zola," Bucky said; his voice was thick with pain.  
He let go of Steve and stood, lunged forward, fist pulled back,  
With a shout he slammed it forward and left a mighty crack.  
Globe shattered, the speakers crackled, sparked ’til they were blown.  
Zola's Zeppelin crumbled, broke apart with one big groan.  
Its floor gave out below them, and they fell into the sky.  
Hulk fell first, and he fell quickly, the clouds all rushing by.  
Widow fell; Sam dove after and caught her with his wings fanned.  
Steve clung onto a rafter and grabbed Bucky by the hand.  
The ground was far below them, miles and miles away.  
Steve and Bucky held each other as the Zeppelin's frame gave way.  
They hurtled through the air, but something stopped their fall.  
"Well look at that," said Howard Stark, "I thought I'd seen it all.  
But I've never seen that many people falling from the sky.  
Last time I checked, Steve Rogers, you sure couldn't fly."  
And Steve felt great relief, though pain throbbed in his head,  
But then he looked to Bucky, and feared that he was dead.  
His gears had all gone still, skin cold as arctic sea.  
With a gasping breath, Bucky woke, and said, "I'm free.  
Steve?" he asked, and Steve's heart leapt. "Steve, is it really you?"  
"Where are we?" Bucky asked, with horror, "Oh gods, what did I do?"  
"You're not beyond redemption." Steve grinned a bloodied grin.  
"You helped us take down Zola, and we saved the town of Sin."

#

The airship sailed gently down and settled on the ground,  
As its gangplank extended, Howard cried, "Peg, look who we found!"  
And Peggy ran and threw her arms ’round Steve, then Bucky too.  
"It's a relief to see you both,” she said, “but I should throttle you."  
Steve blushed, but nodded solemnly. "I didn't have a choice."  
"He found me," Bucky said. "Helped me take back my voice."  
"I'm sorry that you suffered, James," Peg said and shook her head.  
"We searched for you, found nothing. We thought that you were dead."  
"The world has changed," Steve said. "It's changed, and so have we.  
But one thing hasn't, Buck, I swear—you'll always have me."  
"I don't know myself," Bucky said, "don't even know what's true.  
Can't remember my own name, but I sure remember you.  
And I don't know where we're headed, but I don't want to hide.  
There's nothing that can stop us, if we’re fighting side by side."  
Steve smiled and reached for Bucky. "You've got that right. Let's go.  
There's so much I want to show you, and so much I want to know.  
We've got no cause to stay here and everywhere to fly."  
Bucky kissed Steve, slow and sweet, and they looked up to the sky.  
And so, Steve had his Bucky back, and Bucky had his Steve,  
And this is how the story ends, or that's what we believe.

**Author's Note:**

> Reblog [ on tumblr](http://luckyraeve.tumblr.com/post/161178397317)


End file.
